the mark of those who cannot be saved

[stagemanagers]

[You remember dying. Maybe the memory is clear and bright and your body still aches from the cause. Maybe it was fast enough that you didn't feel it and don't remember what you went through. But no matter how you went out, that's no excuse for truancy! Which is to say: you are still in the school.

For those executed, you will wake up in your beds. The dormitories look exactly as they did when you first arrived, without any of the changes or personal effects you and your dormmates might have made. The only real difference is that the little cot in Ambassador isn't there.

For those who were victims, you will wake where your body was discovered. All of your injuries are gone, and you feel fine. It's almost like you're still alive - but you remember what happened to you. It couldn't have just been a dream, could it?

The school looks much as you remember it, save perhaps for a few key differences. For one, there's no groundhog murals anywhere. Where things were green on the other side, like banners or paint, you'll find that here they're blood red.

The doors, for the moment, are still locked. Looks like even death couldn't free you.]

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

(( ooc: Welcome to deadland, everyone! It mostly resembles the school here, and new floors will be revealed after new people die. For example, the second area will unlock after the week 3 dead arrive, and so on. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canonpoint, with all lost memories restored. Have fun being dead! ))

Comments

[voicerights]

[But it wasn't alive. It is - was - a computer processor. It doesn't press the subject, though, focusing on information it can handle.]

It has been approximately a week since your death and the trial.

[prophetpriestandking]

A week.

[One whole week.]

If you'd told me it was a month - or just a day, I would've believed you. Time feels...wrong around here. But this whole place is wrong anyway.

...Can I ask you something? What were you - before - before here?

[voicerights]

[To that? It straightens up.]

I am a Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor. A SQUIP.

[...this guy has no context for that, does he. The SQUIP frowns slightly, and attempts to illustrate through hand gestures]

A quantum computer within a pill
That travels through your blood until
I implant in your brain and I'll tell you what to do.

[prophetpriestandking]

[Yeah he understands like 40% of those words. But, he gets the jist of it. It's something like the probing that the Skua was talking about, probably. Just...with a guy. With a consciousness that takes over yours. Thinking on it, that's rather terrifying.]

...Right. [No time to dwell on that too much.] S-so if you died, wouldn't you turn back into a SQUIP, instead of keeping the body they gave us?

[A pause.]

O-or are you...in someone right now?

[Oh, this is going to get complicated.]

[voicerights]

There was no human in this body when I first awoke in this school. But you are correct in that I am not dead. There would be nothing, if I was fully deactivated.

[...why is that thought giving it an uneasy feeling. Is this why humans like to believe in an afterlife?]

Therefore, we are not dead. A simulation, perhaps.

[prophetpriestandking]

A...simu-whatnow?

[voicerights]

[SIGH]

A dream.

[prophetpriestandking]

A dream? That we're all sharing? How come it's just us - why would they do that?

[voicerights]

...I was never able to analyze Hester properly, or the Wizard himself. I cannot tell you their motivations without further interaction.

[prophetpriestandking]

...Right.

[He nods firmly.]

Then...all we have to do is get their attention. If we're not dead, then there's gotta be some reason why they kept us alive...and put us in here. Which...seems to be the exact same place, but, redder.

[voicerights]

How much have you explored? I would be interested in knowing just how identical the location is to the previous.

[prophetpriestandking]

As much as there is here. It seems just the same as it was before...

[He gives his arms an idle swing.]

But maybe we could look together? Another pair of eyes might help!

[voicerights]

...it might. I was programmed to notice things often dismissed by others. [read; humans] If nothing else, confirming this place as a duplicate prison would be productive.

[The SQUIP has joined your party!]

[prophetpriestandking]

Sounds like a plan.

[He turns to waddle on ahead.]

Let's try the west hallway again - maybe you can find a way to get it open!

[Someone hasn't looked since the dead arrived.]

[voicerights]

[look the SQUIP is a robot and even it knows how to properly walk as human, and maybe it's just programming prodding at it but-]

Stop.

[Just gonna- try and adjust Mumble's posture and such yOU ARE DOING IT WRONG]

[prophetpriestandking]

[Mumble doesn't so much as freeze as he kind of ...wiggles around the SQUIP's hands. Like a ferret. But a man.]

...What are you doing?

[voicerights]

[afjbasgfa stop moving you lil shit]

I am attempting to correct your gait.

[prophetpriestandking]

[Have you ever tried to capture a wild bird, SQUIP?]

Correct it? What's wrong with it?

cw; ableism

[voicerights]

[well apparently it's trying now!]

Humans do not walk like you do unless there is something wrong with them.

[prophetpriestandking]

[He's a REAL wiggly boy.]

W-what does that matter?

[voicerights]

[BOY HOWDIE GOOD THING THERE'S SO FEW PEOPLE IN DEADLAND BECAUSE THIS WOULD BE VERY AWKWARD TO WALK IN ON except the SQUIP is stopping, crossing its arms, and looking utterly affronted]

You want to be mistreated?

[prophetpriestandking]

What? No - why - why would you ask that? [Like!] A-are you about to mistreat me?

[voicerights]

[EVEN MORE AFFRONTED!!!]

I am helping you by trying to correct that which makes you an easy target!

[prophetpriestandking]

Y-you're not helping anything! Who am I going to be an easy target to here?

[voicerights]

Just because there are only a few of us here doesn't mean that you shouldn't work on fitting in!